Sherm White was a native son, born in Beloit on April 6, 1912. On June 12, 1937, Sherm was married to Tordis Muri in Beloit. Tordis and Sherm traveled widely, visiting her relatives in Scandinavia.

Sherm White was a dedicated civic servant, an exemplary family man and a warm human being who served his church, the commercial life of Beloit and the citizens of Beloit. He gave special meaning to the concept of friendship. He was “broad and pleasant” with a love of people and an expansive personality brimming with humor, wit and compassion.

While Broad and Pleasant streets created the corner location of his gas station and meeting place for customers and friends in downtown Beloit, he gave it character and meaning. For 30 years between 1937 and 1967 it was part of community conversation to say “I’ll meet you at Sherm’s” and hundreds of us did.

Sherm White typified what Walter Lippmann characterized as “one of the average little guys” who inhabit communities like Beloit across this great land… men and women who do small things in big ways to make hometown America a haven for happiness and pride.

Sherm loved Beloit and Beloit loved him. He loved our community traditions and people. He felt a sense of heritage and history. He was proud of the College and the Historical Society.

He worked his adult life for the programs of Kiwanis; the Recreation Department was something special to him and he was a special friend of the Beloit Daily News.

During his life Sherm was known for his participation in numerous fund drives; The original Community Chest and later the United Givers campaign, the fund drives for the YMCA and YWCA and various other good causes.

He called hundreds of people by their first names and his friends were legion. Sherm was an outstanding Kiwanian and in 1969 was named Kiwanian of the Year.

He was honored again by the Kiwanis Club in 1971 when he was awarded the New Club Building Citation for assisting in organizing and chartering the new Kiwanis Club of Greater Beloit; the first organizational meeting was held in Sherm’s living room on Vine Street.

Additional activities included membership in the Elks Club, the American Red Cross Disaster Board, the Second Congregational Church and the Southern Rock County Petroleum Council, which he served as Chairman.

Sherm White was an avid circus fan and he collected circus lore with his friend Charles Kitto. For many years he showed his circus movies at schools and at organizations throughout the Stateline area. He and his family never missed a performance within 100 miles of Beloit and he called many circus performers and personalities by name.

One of his special friends was Bill Antes who was press agent for the legendary Ringling Brothers Circus.

While a member of the Second Congregational Church, Sherm was a member of the Wakanda Club, a young men’s group with the church. This group sponsored the Boy Scout troop and fielded baseball and basketball teams in city league competition.

For many years the Beloit Daily News sponsored an area-wide marbles Tournament and Soapbox Derby. Sherm was an official of the tournament from the beginning and officiated at hundreds of games every spring as school, city, county and area champions were selected.

This tournament, supervised by George Clark, Bill Behling and Larry Raymer, grew to include 165 schools and 50,000 young people with queens, kings, parades and coverage by Life magazine.

Sherm was a great booster of recreation and sports. He was an avid fan of Beloit College during the days when Dolph Stanley coached the Buccaneers to many championships. He was a member of the downtown 100 Club which backed Stanley and his teams.

He sold tickets at his gas station for all sorts of civic and sports events and distributed hundreds of them free to those who couldn’t afford them.

Sherm was a booster of the Old Winter Sports Association, the Beloit Ski Club and the Beloit Toboggan Club, organizations now defunct. He was a member of the Beloit Toboggan Club team which traveled to Janesville, Madison, Fontana, Williams Bay and Lake Geneva for competitive events.

When ski meets were held on the giant slide at Big Hill Park (since dismantled and re-erected at Wesby, Wisconsin), Sherm could be counted on to be there as an official, handling traffic, taking tickets, measuring jumps on the hill, or assisting as an announcer.

He worked with and for the Salvation Army and the Family Service. He ran “charge accounts” for people who couldn’t pay cash for their gasoline. He “loaned out” his gas station repair shop on weekends to people who wanted to fix their cars but couldn’t afford his services.

At the Yule season he sold Christmas trees, but he gave away as many trees as he sold to his friends and to people who didn’t have the dollar to buy a tree.

Sherm died suddenly of an apparent heart attack at age 62 on Tuesday, August 27, 1974.